Just over two weeks ago a group of intrepid Firedorians were preparing to perform on the stage at the Convention Centre Dublin as part of the opening and Retro Hugo Awards ceremony at Worldcon.? They were performing a short scene which had been devised by the group and further scripted by one of our own resident scriptwriters (and blogger), Simon Murphy.
There are 2 things that many people didn’t realise:
1. This event was big, I mean, I knew that the auditorium was big (2000 seats and a stage that you could hold a circus on) but the event culturally is big. Worldcon is the world science fiction festival for literature, art, graphic novels, performance arts (plays, radio plays, music, podcasts) ? basically if it was sci-fi, fantasy, anime, or horror related then it was covered. It sold 7000 tickets to members all over the world, and its all volunteer ran. This ceremony was also live cast on the internet too. Being part of the opening ceremony was suddenly a huge thing!
2. The director of the scene done by Firedoor was also the director of the whole ceremony (including the awards admin, special guest presenters, nominees and award people wrangling) and the asssistant director for the Hugo Awards ceremony which took place on the Sunday.
As often happens during productions, things go wrong, plans fall apart and people come along dig their toes in and say “I don’t like that, I’m not doing that”, and so you have to adapt and change things.? More Firedoorians were involved originally and more scenes were devised and worked on, before the axes fell during the process.? The end result definitely wasn’t as planned but the show went on and it generally went well.? The audience were educated a bit, enjoyed the experience, and nice complimentary comments were made about our scene too.
This was such a relief to the ? at this point ? white haired, stressed and increasingly aged & exhausted harridan of a director who had being working on this since January.? The Worldcon committee were also impressed and handed our director one of the few 2019 Worldcon Hero awards for going above and beyond the remit of the task.? She was surprised and proud that all her hard work had been recognised and just a little bit of gollum appeared when referring to her ‘precious’.
But that’s not all. She recognises that this show could not have come together the way it did without the support of the Firedoor Committee and especially those who took part in the whole process even if they didn’t make it onto the stage.? Therefore this Hero award is shared with the following people as well:
I don’t like writing about myself or blowing my own trumpet which is why most of this piece is in the third person but?I?couldn’t have done this without you. Thank you so very much for your time & dedication & patience and you deserve to share in this award too.
– Alex